Twittering: It’s Not Just Tweety Bird

03 May 2008

POne of the main challenges that public relations and communications professionals face is that when something new comes out that we “get” as a legitimate way to spread the word, we often face at best, blank stares, and at worst, derision.

Hence, Twitter.

The first time I heard of Twitter, I too thought that it was someone describing my stereo speakers that play treble. Not so. Sure, a lot of people use it to talk about what their cat had for dinner, but it is undoubtedly a tool with legitimate business applications.

Enterprise blogging has been lauded for its ability to “humanize” a company and make distant executives feel available to ground-floor customers. Twitter can serve the same purpose much more quickly.

Twitter spearheads the “microblogging” trend, where people air thoughts and share information in real-time while observing a 140-character limit. Here are tips for getting the most out of it:

Subscribe generously. Twitter is among the only social media brands where the subscriber:subscribed ratio is reversed. Most users follow a higher number of people than the number following them.

Don’t just be casual; be personal. Enterprise blogging works best when a blogger is frank about what’s happening in his company. But it is generally understood that the blogger will not discuss his personal life.

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Twitter has the potential to be the ultimate viral marketing tool. Why? One on the hand, it provides the intimacy of conversation that is missing with other forms of communication. At the same time, it has the potential of connecting millions of people to share their thoughts. My biggest concern with Twitter is that it is difficult to explain to the average Joe the real purpose of Twitter.